


Of a Fluffly Cotton Candy on a Snowy Day

by MurasakibaraAoi



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-05-04 09:21:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5328932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MurasakibaraAoi/pseuds/MurasakibaraAoi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He realized that she cared. He realized things were better when she was around. He realized it didn’t really matter if it was a coincidence or not, because she was there anyway. Those were his reasons to maybe literally drag her along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Robbed

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: English is not my first language.   
> A/N: I do not own KNB

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke.   
> A/N: English is not my first language, so please excuse the horrifying mistakes you might find here.

There were several reasons behind why it wasn’t a good idea for her to join the Home Economy club.

Helping out that day had been nice, oh so very nice. It had been a good experience, and it had been fun- The kitchen like area at Yosen that students could have access to wasn’t as big as the other class rooms, but it was bright and it had lots of windows facing the hallway, and it reminded her of her work station back at the shop. The members were welcoming even though it hadn’t been long since most of them joined, and the President had been her acquaintance back in Middle School, so at least there was one familiar face to share tips with.

But the reasons were still there, and because they were really good and perfectly backed up by previous experiences, she knew joining wasn’t a good idea. Burning down the school or accidentally frying some innocent bystander’s hand within the first month of class wasn’t something she wanted to be guilty of, and she wasn’t desperate enough to ignore the fact that no, they wouldn’t be baking every single day, and so, the chances of becoming a breathing, walking threat to general safety were equal to the amount of days the H.E club would be actually _cooking_.

Those were a lot of days.

So she wasn’t going to join.

Which was slightly depressing to say the least.

Or at least that was what she thought as the key resting on top of the counter practically stared at her, also before, during and after she picked it up and held it on her hand. Why had she offered herself to lock the classroom again? Ah, right, she didn’t have clue. She also didn’t know why Hiraki, the club President, had voluntarily given it to her. It probably had something to do with how exhausted she had looked after narrowly saving five person’s cream from being too removed, or those ten tarts from being burned inside the oven, or that girl who had sworn she cut her hand when actually the red thing on her palm had in a better life been a mashed cherry. All in all, it had been worth it- Looking at the small pastries left as her part, arranged inside a plastic container besides her bag, at least that was what it felt like.

“Alright, windows…”

The sky was barely starting to turn orange when she checked the windows were all closed and locked, which was a sign that she had, in fact, more time to lock the classroom and return the key to the teacher’s room than what she had originally thought. Some sports clubs weren’t done yet though, and the last thing she saw through the window before turning around to pick her things, was the football team playing ruthlessly on the wide backyard. _That’s what you get from a school that takes pride on sports_ , she guessed.

It was a normal day in Yosen.

That was how she figured things were supposed to be in High School.

But when she turned, the universe decided to defy what little sense of normality she had been able to acquire over the short time she had been High School student.

It wasn’t the slightly open window what caught her attention, even when she had been almost a hundred percent sure it had been closed just a moment ago.

Instead, she focused on the fact that there was an arm – _A very, very large arm_ \- dressed in white a purple fabric sneaking and almost squeezing itself through the open space, while a hand – _A very large, very wide hand_ \- slowly patted it’s way to what she could only guess were the pastries still resting inside the container. When the fingers accidentally brushed against her bag and the movement halted before patting it’s way to the right, the girl took a moment to actually raise her eyes to where the arm came from, but the when the only thing she encountered was the top of a purple head, to say she was confused would be an understanding.

It stayed like that for the few moments it took the hand to finally find the pastries and easily snatch three at the same time, and even when the limb slowly retreated and another appeared to silently close the window, her mind was still too occupied processing what was going on. When she finally but slowly snapped out of her perplexed state, something probably should have been said, anything given that someone was virtually stealing her property. But whatever could have possible come out of her mouth was stuck in her throat when the head slowly moved to the right until the person actually thought he was out of danger and slowly stood up. _Now_ , as her eyes went up and up and up _and up_ , **_trying_** to follow the person’s head _,_ the feeling slowly turned into a heavy something on the bottom of her stomach.

In all honesty, she should have known it.

The arm and the fingers had been too long, and the fact that she was short didn’t mean the wall under the window wasn’t, in fact, tall enough to reach an average sized teenager’s hip. What kind of person, then, could be slightly seen even when crouched behind such a tall wall?

_The answer was, someone over 6 feet tall._

From where she stood, taking in the lazy purple eyes and the cheeks already filled with the pastries he was munching,  face framed by an almost shoulder long purple hair, she thought he probably was taller than _that_. Which should have very well been impossible in Japan since Matsuzaka, or at the very least, in a _High School._ She blinked, maroonish eyes following his enormous frame until he was nowhere to be seen, and even then, it took her a couple of seconds to stop blinking before tilting her face to one side, eyes still wide open, fixed on the hallway as if it were to give her some sort of explanation for the very random…. _something_ she had just witnessed. 

It was perhaps an automatic movement when her hand took out the phone after it ringed twice, blindly tapping the right side of the screen before putting it against her ear, finding it in herself to at least hope she had hit the right option and she hadn’t, in fact, hanged up on someone.

“ _I’m done with training, I’m dead tired and I’m being teased by a brainless moron because of it. Let’s get out of here before I kill Haruka. Where are you? Still Home Economy?_ ”

There was someone snickering on the back ground after the ‘killing’ part, an almost dangerous growl that most certainly was meant to scare someone out of their minds, and a few other sounds that couldn’t be recognized. But as the girl now stared at her empty plastic container she had slowly approached, then at the window, then at the empty space once more, the only thing that actually came out of her was a hum. 

“Um”

“ _Aoi? Did something happen?_ ” Ryo’s voice even sounded curious at the ever so smart answer that she got, the snickering that had at some point turned into laugher stopping on the background “ _Something did, right? Did you cut yourself, burned something? What was it this time?_ ”

Intelligently, Aoi blinked once more at the empty space.

“I have no idea”

The girl silently wondered if she had just been robbed.

And she also silently decided Ryo definitely didn’t need to know that if it had been the case.

* * *

 

**_It wasn’t_ ** **meant _to be._**

**_Even when there was far too much evidence piled up that suggested otherwise._ **

**_There had just been a certain amount of things laid out for it to happen effortlessly. A lot of coincidences, a lot of contradictions, and a lot of physical assets that, placed side by side, no one could help but stare at._ **


	2. The Art Of Not Knowing What Is Going On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke.   
> A/N: English is not my first language, so please excuse the horrifying mistakes you might find here.

_"_ _E-Excuse me"_

_The tall boy looked sideways at whoever had talked to him, disinterest written all over his face._

_There was a group of girls standing behind a blond one, giggling with obvious red cheeks, glancing at him every few seconds. Atsushi supposed the blond girl had been the one that had talked to him, because she was closer to where he was standing, glancing up at his face with an equally boring looking blush and an equally plain giggle escaping her lips. It was the same girl who had first walked out of the room just when he got there, or maybe it was the red haired one? Certainly, he could not remember. And because so much giggling all together annoyed him, such a high pinched voice annoyed him, and such a strong scented perfume annoyed him to absolutely no end, he tuned it out while sticking his hands inside his pocket, looking towards the door, brushing the box of Pocky with the tip of his fingers._

_The blond didn't seem to take the hint._

_"_ _Are you looking for someone? Maybe I can help you!"_

_He glanced inside the room through the window, but there was no one else besides the president of the club, some girl with short hair. It was not long, it was not dark colored. Everything was clean and there was cake on top of the counter, vanilla for what he could see, but it was_ _**just** _ _that. He brought out the Pocky he had been basically hiding in his pocket, something he had planned to eat_ _**after** _ _, munching on the strawberry flavored snack as he turned around and started to walk away from the annoying voices and plain cake._

* * *

It would have been a lie to say Aoi didn't spend most part of her week in peace, because she did.

She realized how much difficult High School was, and how tough that school turned out to be, and how much time she needed to spend on studying to survive her teenager years, but she also had Ryo and Haruka to keep her company in the slightly awkward journey of trying to blend into High School life while not trying to look like lost puppies while talking through the all too big hallways and buildings, and there actually were some pretty funny individuals in both her class and the committees she was interested in joining. It was nice, all in all.

But there was a tiny little detail that she wasn't able to miss the moment she stepped on the classroom that Tuesday morning.

And that was the purple haired being that somehow, for some reason, was sitting inside of her classroom. She had almost silently asked Ryo if he had always been there, only to receive an incredulous look and a _'How did you not notice that before?'_ as an answer.

At first, she didn't think he even recognized her.

By Wednesday, Aoi wasn't so sure.

It wasn't as if the titan, that turned out to be called Murasakibara Atsushi, had talked to her or anything of the sorts. He sat at the far left corner of the classroom, and was way too busy eating junk food to seemingly pay attention to something else- _'Of course he is a basketball player, idiot. He was recruited in Middle School_ ' she had heard before from people sneaking glances at the guy, and the revelation was surprising to say the least. Not unbelievable, but at least really surprising. He munched and munched and munched on food, and not only was it hard to believe he would listen to whatever you were saying even if you were talking right in front of him, but also to think he had the will to move that enormous body of his around a court.

But then, when she sat after reading what the teacher had asked her to answer out loud, sighing in discomfort at the attention, searching for Ryo with her eyes, the brown haired girl realized Murasakibara Atsushi was staring right at her.

Given that he looked away faster than she thought possible from him, Aoi would have said she was thinking too much of it. But then it happened again, and again, until she was sure there was a hole burned on the back of her head, and she was left with no choice but to recognize that yes, he knew she had been the one she stole the pastries from, and that a generous part of her brain was firmly against letting him know that she _knew that he knew_.

And so, with the occasional stare, it kept on being peaceful. For the next 24 hours, that is.

Depending on who you asked, there were several different reasons behind the shift in the course of things. But if you asked Mikitana Aoi, the fact that anything changed at all, most probably was her fault.

Though it had not been her intention. Really, it hadn't been. She was curious and she really didn't think her life was in danger by at least knowing someone that was taller than her by a ridiculous amount of inches, but that didn't mean pointing her finger at someone whose hand was bigger than her head was on top of her 'to do' list. Truth to be told, Aoi wasn't scared, but now, _intimidated…_ that was a whole different story. So that Thursday when the bell ringed, by the time she reached the door with her lunch in hand while Ryo was putting away her books, she had realized her mistake far too late.

Because when she reached the front of the class, so did the ones that sat further behind her, at the back of the class- That's what happens when you have short legs, people always walk faster. And so, for what had to be the first time, she had unknowingly walked right into the purple haired guy that was already standing by the teacher's desk, facing the board, apparently searching for something on a plastic bag that was hanging from his arm. Which would have been fine, because she had immediately looked down at the plastic container in her hands instead of risking meeting his eyes for any reason at all, suddenly finding the smooth surface very interesting, intentionally walking a little bit faster so to reach the door before he turned around.

It wasn't that much of a distance, she could do it in a couple of seconds.

But then her feet almost stopped moving.

And for some reason her mind decided to take a time out.

Her fingers brushed against that same smooth surface, a heavy feeling starting to grow inside of her stomach. Aoi first blinked around three times in a row, then her eyes travelled all over the container, taking in even the smallest details, thinking that _this time around_ she hadn't forgotten about the lid.

_It was the same container as that day._

It had been a very small, very stupid thing, _a detail that surely no one should have noticed at all_. As the girl breathed in quietly, that's what she wanted to think. But then she had the brilliant idea of looking up slightly, only to find that the purple haired guy – _Murasakibara. Murasakibara Atsushi_ \- had turned around already, Pocky sticking out of his mouth. And that he was staring at the same thing as her, eyes heavy with, to her utter bewilderment, _recognition_.

And then, because life really wanted that day to be memorable for the years and years to come, he had raised his eyes as well, and the moment they crossed gazes and he realized she was by then staring at him and out of his face his eyes widening was the only thing that changed, Aoi just knew that he knew. That was the moment Aoi knew that he knew _that she knew_.

It was the first time in a couple of years she had felt so childish. But that was after running out of the door and into safety. Certainly, not before.

* * *

It also was on Thursday morning when things went from cero to a hundred in a very short amount of time.

"This is isn't fair- Is not fair at all. How do you even _do_ it? This is the fourth year in a row! That is the best seat!"

By the time Aoi pulled out the number of her seat from the box, Ryo had already been groaning in defeat.

The black haired girl was able to somehow both pout and frown at the same time when they both took a look of the number and checked its position on the diagram drawn on the board. Aoi laughed under her breathe, bag in hand as she walked towards the back of the class, the right corner closest to the window. The girl was almost tempted to wave at Ryo once she was there, setting her things down on top of what would be her new desk for the rest of the year. There were good traits and bad traits to absolutely everything; the bad thing about sitting at the back (while being short) was the fact that she had to move her desk a little to the side so her sight wouldn't be blocked by those who were in front of her; the good thing though, was the fact that now she had the best view of the trees the apparently ancient Gardening Club were so proud of.

"I guess today it's a good day for me, Ryo" Aoi just chuckled lowly when the black haired girl looked at the box filled with sit numbers with determination, rolling up the sleeves of her uniform. She knew Ryo had never liked sitting in the middle of the class, or close to the door, so there were few acceptable options and many sad possibilities inside that box. A guy with no blazer on and brown hair casually took a slice of paper out before Ryo could, looking at the seat besides Aoi with a grin on his face. Aka…..Akatsuno? _No, Akatsuki_. Akatsuki something.

"Sadly for you, it's a good day for me too" He teased Ryo, walking towards his new seat. The black haired girl screamed in a very colorful way and then tried to throw the nearest thing at him. Fortunately it was a chair, and it was a good thing because _then_ she was stopped by the ones around her _before_ she could lift it off the ground, something that looked scarily possible for a girl like her. They might not know Ryo beforehand like Aoi did, they might not have witnessed all the things she had seen, but at least they sensed what she was capable of doing.

"Screw you, asshole!"

"Please take care of me" Was his friendly greeting when he got to her side, a wide grin on his face and a hand held up in the air, waving, absolutely and completely ignoring the annoyed black haired girl that was glaring at him. Aoi wasn't so fast smiling back, taking a moment to think he looked like a Cheshire cat and another to think that maybe comparing people to animals wasn't the polite thing to do- Finally, a small bow was sent in his direction, because as friendly as he looked, she didn't want to lose time fooling herself into believing she could pull of the same natural looking gesture.

"Likewise"

While Ryo starting jumping up a down, a very good seat number written on the paper in her hand, Aoi was already sitting and trying to recall her schedule while pulling out her things. Why were there so many things in a single day? She could remember her cousins studying _weeks_ before their tests were even announced, and she also remember their horrified face when she announced she wasn't going to their school, but had chosen Yosen instead. _'You are going to die prematurely, Aoi_ ' they said, and just by looking at her mathematics text book mocking her from the inside of her bag, the girl knew they weren't wrong about it.

"Switch with me"

Call it instinct – _Survival instinct, maybe, at least given her luck. That one that almost never worked_ \- but Aoi's hand stopped moving before it touched her pencil case, close to frozen in place at the sound appearance of that voice. She blinked at her bag, the quiet smile frozen in her face as well, trying to figure out why she had a very bag feeling about this.

"B-Bu-"

"Switch"

"I-"

"I'll crush you"

_What._

Blinking again, Aoi slowly turned her heads to the right, the almost completely unfamiliar voice ringing in her ears like a fire alarm. She was surprised to see that the friendly Akatsuka Ryuji was no longer sitting beside her, but instead, he was now sitting a few rows to her right, a somehow scared look on his face- Even when shaking he still resembled a cat, now looking like he had just seen a really big and scary dog. Which wasn't surprising, given that standing in his place, staring at her with a potato chip almost hanging from his lips, was no other than a lazy and bored looking Murasakibara Atsushi.

This time around, he didn't give her a single second to prepare, he was already staring down at her in the most indiscrete way she had seen herself facing, and to her credit it only took Aoi about three seconds to realize she was holding her breathe in an almost painful way. There was a small voice on the back of her mind whispering escape plans into her ear, but since the first one already consisted on jumping off the window, resignation was the only thing left to harvest.

"You knew I was in your class"

It clearly wasn't a question.

It was a statement.

And even when she was hearing him talk for what had to be the first time, he still couldn't make out what kind of logic he was following, or _if_ he was following any logic at all. That seemed more likely, taking into consideration how his face was completely straight and he reached for another potato chip to munch on. His heavy eyes and the fact that he was still staring reminded Aoi that she was, in fact, meant to say something back. _Anything, as long as it doesn't give him a reason to break her in two._

"…Be….Before? N-No, I didn't-"

"You are not in the HE club"

It was an abrupt interruption, and she was left to almost gap at her still straight face with a look that probably resembled that of a deer facing the lights of an incoming far.

"I'm not"

She didn't stutter this time. But it was only because her tone had grown gradually low by each letter until it was just a little bit better than a whisper. Aoi didn't have an idea of where this was going or what this was about, but she didn't particularly like the way it was going. Or more like she really, _really_ didn't like the frown that not so slowly settled itself on Murasakibara's face. Her fingers curled tightly around the bag still resting on her lap.

"So you don't normally bake inside school"

_Oh god._

"I…don't"

A sharp intake of breath was the only thing heard from her when a very large hand gripped her head like it was nothing more than a ball or an apple, tilting it upwards ever so slightly. It didn't _hurt_ , but there was enough pressure on her skull to make moving particularly difficult, and adding the loud beating of her heart and the dreadful feeling on the pit of her stomach, it made _thinking straight_ a little impossible. And surely, the slight glare Murasakibara was giving her had something to do with it, because no one in their right mind and in her situation would think he looked like a _kid_ throwing a _tantrum_. So something must be wrong with her head as of now.

_Somehow she sensed her last answer seemed to actually make him upset._

"That makes me want to crush you"

_Now, how can I call this kind of situation?_

'Staggering' was a nice description.

"That's an interesting choice of words" She mumbled under her breathe, trying not to bring much more attention by breathing slowly through her nose, and Aoi really didn't know if that statement was meant for him or for herself. It was so easy, so but so easy for him- He towered over her small frame as if she were no more than little kid, keeping her in place with a single hand, which in all honesty, wasn't fair at all. Aoi almost squeaked in surprise when the grip lessened, basically the same moment Murasakibara blinked, frown dissolving almost immediately, and tilted his head to one side.

….. _What?_

"Ah, I'm sorry, but I couldn't hear you. What did you say?"

It was Aoi's turn to blink at him.

She had heard something similar before. Really mean guys that thought bullying people was good. Aoi had heard those words being said in a very sarcastic tone, one that would surely make more than one cry, because it really, really sounded awful.

But as tall and big and intimidating and incomprehensible as Murasakibara Atsushi was, he didn't sound like it. Actually, now that he wasn't frowning or glaring at her, he didn't even look threatening, and if he weren't gripping her head like a tomato, he could very well be having an almost normal conversation with her- He looked and acted genuinely curious for whatever he had not heard, lazy eyes back at scanning her face, and the second Aoi thought the situation might not be as bad as she had originally thought, it was the moment the girl knew she was going crazy at almost sixteen years of age.

"Just what _the_ _hell_ do you think you are doing to Aoi?"

_Suddenly the window idea doesn't sound so bad._

"Ryo" It almost came out as a pained groan. Aoi loved Ryo, she really did, but that didn't take away the black haired girl's bad habit of just… exploding without measuring her words or her actions. It was probably even worse when she could see said black haired from the corner of her eye, approaching with a dangerous look on her face.

"Who are you?" The both annoyed and bored tone in which Murasakibara spoke made Aoi wince involuntarily, glancing at his nonchalant expression before glancing at Ryo and her already twitching eye. That had never been a good sign, not in Elementary School, not in Middle School, and it certainly wouldn't be a good sign in High School.

"You answer me first!" She demanded, looking at the tall guy with hands on her hips, not caring she had to look up at him in the most literal way. Ryo was by absolutely no means as short as Aoi, proudly standing at her 5'7, so the difference between her and Murasakibara wasn't as shocking as it probably was with the brown haired girl herself. It still was weird to see her looking up at someone their age, but the way she glared at the guy told Aoi how little she worried about his height.

When he did not answer and turned his head away from her Ryo almost growled at him, narrowing her eyes even more.

"Why is she so annoying? So loud" Aoi had no idea as to _why_ he was looking at _her_ as he spoke, but you can be sure she wasn't all too grateful about it. There was no denying the increasingly dangerous frown on Ryo's face as she glanced at her, but any attempts of calming her down were stepped on when Murasakibara actually moved her head right and left until Aoi was looking at him again with what could only be described as a very pleading look. _She just wanted to avoid a bloodshed, please_ "Nee, is that your name? Aoi what?"

"You don't even kn- You don't know her? What are you even _thinking!?_ "

" _Ryo, please don't_ "

It was too much, it was too much and all at the same time. It was too much for anyone who preferred some degree of peace in her everyday life, or at least for someone that appreciated her being in control of her body instead of having someone else holding her head in a grip that didn't as if it were going to end anytime soon, if not someone who didn't precisely want to witness a murder. Ryo was angry, because Ryo got angry easily and on a weekly basis, and she was probably not above throwing a punch of two- Which wouldn't be a good idea, for many reasons, starting with the fact that she would probably break her hand if it collided with Murasakibara, and closely followed by either a detention or Aoi's head bursting like a grape if the purple haired got pissed and forgot that what he was holding was in fact a human head.

None of the options above were good. None. And Aoi was sure there were many others that were equally troublesome.

But then Murasakibara Atsushi started patting her head and she forgot how it was to understand a situation.

Because she was being patted on the head by a titan. Patted like a pet by a walking, breathing wall. And she still didn't know what was going on.

"Cotton candy"

Both girls blinked at the same time, and at the same time yet again turned their heads towards Murasakibara. He was standing in the same position, munching on a couple of Pockys he could have only pulled out while no one was looking, because they certainly hadn't been there a second ago- The tall teenager stared at her in a way that apparently was meant to be normal, without taking his eyes off, without looking away when he was being stared back at- In fact, Murasakibara barely _blinked_ after the words left his lips.

"….Excuse me?"

"You" He said with what had to be the most perfect poker face she had seen in her life, almost like he was talking about something as trivial as the weather. The Pocky disappeared in absolutely no time, but no one seemed to notice how unnatural it was as the guy tilted his head to one side, almost like a little kid, dragging absolutely all the attention to the finger lifted to poke at her not so slightly chubby cheek "You are fluffy. You look like cotton candy"

_This is the most random person I've met in my entire life._

There was a moment of general silence, and when she said general, she meant the whole classroom went silent. Aoi had tried not to think about those who were in the same room as them, tried to ignore the fact that she was having way more attention from what she could probably stomach, but that silence was even worse than the whispers that could possibly exist. As a matter of fact, Aoi would have preferred noise over that kind of silence, because even her mind went blank with what had just been said to her. _If that happens to be an insult, he is pretty creative about it._

Ryo was the first one to react. Possible the worst thing that would have happened.

"Dude, even if I don't understand what you mean, I sure don't like what you are saying"

"Ehhhh, you are quite annoying" The glare was back to his face- Or maybe she should say a _full on_ glare appeared on Murasakibara's face this time around. That kind of expression between annoyance and laziness was not something Aoi had seen before, but it was enough to make the short girl gulp, quickly turning her head towards Ryo. Just like she expected the black haired girl had a tick on her eye, a vein pressed on her forehead, and Aoi could swear to god she could see fire somewhere around her. It really worried the brown haired when Ryo's hand placed itself on top of the nearest chair, and when the grip on her head tightened "It makes me want to crush you"

The black haired girl's reaction was like stepping on a field full of mines, chairs flying through the air in a very noisy and dangerous explosion of anger.

* * *

**_Kids really didn’t like to be told that what they did was wrong._ **

**_They probably liked even less not being paid enough attention._ **

**_And at least Mikitana Aoi was right about one thing._ **

**_There was no obvious name for what happened that day._ **


End file.
